A New Dawn
by Natterzz
Summary: After the Battle Of Hogwarts, what will Harry, Ron and Hermione do? There are bridges to be built, new relationships to discover and bonds to be forged.


Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter :{

Harry woke slowly, trying to let his eyes adjust to the bright sunlight that was pouring through the window facing him. He sat up against the pillows and fumbled around on the nightstand for his glasses. His stomach rumbled loudly, reminding him that he hadn't eaten since he went to sleep; he had only managed to swallow a few mouthfuls of the sandwiches that Kreacher had bought him before he fell asleep.

He looked around the room and saw a note pinned to his other pillow;

_Harry,_

_We're all down in the Great hall, Mrs Weasley wanted to keep us all together, she also wanted to wake you and see if you were all right but Ron persuaded her to leave you. Come down whenever you're ready._

_Hermione_

Harry rubbed his eyes to try and wake himself up, before rolling out of bed and deciding that a shower would be a good idea. He spent as long as he could under the warm water washing all the sweat, dirt and blood off of him before his skin started to prune.

He stepped out of the shower and dried himself and saw that someone, probably Ron, had left some clean clothes out for him. He changed into them, and hearing his stomach rumble again, set off for the Great Hall.

He walked through the corridors of the great castle and past every portrait he would pass the occupants all rose and applauded him, shouting his victory and singing his praises. Harry did his best to ignore them and tried to survey the damage done to the castle.

'_Pretty damn bad' _Harry thought to himself _'but hopefully not anything beyond repair'_

He walked down the main staircase and looked into the Great hall through the open doors; it looked as if every person in the castle was inside. He walked up to the doors and scanned the room looking for the familiar shade of red, but before he had a chance to spot them, he himself had already been seen by the few people sitting closest to the doors. They began to applaud him with such ferocity that Harry was sure their arms would begin to ache after only a few seconds.

Unfortunately for Harry in the moment that he hadn't been paying attention, the entire hall had realized who was standing in the doors and were now on their feet joining in the applause. He stood awkwardly in the doorway, a small part of him contemplating running away, when he saw a few tall redheads, also on their feet applauding, at the other end of the hall.

It took him awhile to walk to the end of the hall; it seemed like every person that hadn't had the chance to speak to him immediately after the battle wanted to get their chance now. They grabbed his hands, hugged him, some even kissed him on the cheeks. When he eventually made it to the Weasley's he was bright red from being under so much attention. It was to his immense embarrassment that he realized that they were all on their feet and clapping him, even Ron and Hermione.

He blushed more and took a seat, hoping that everyone else would follow suit. He was pleased when everyone else in the hall sat down and all began to talk amongst themselves, even if they were still looking over at him and pointing towards him every chance they got.

"How long was I asleep?" he asked nobody in particular.

"15 hours, give or take a bit" Ron said to him "We practically had to chain Mum to her seat to stop her from going up to you again" He was rewarded with a gentle swat on his ear from Mrs Weasley.

"Ignore him Harry. Now dear you really need to fill yourself up with a decent meal after everything you've been through" Mrs Weasley spoke to him gently. Just hearing the talk of food made his stomach rumble once more, he caught Ron's eye and they managed to give each other a small grin.

Harry moved his gaze to all the food laid out on the table before him but before he could start putting anything on his plate Mrs Weasley had already placed a plate in front of him loaded up with food. His mouth began to water and he quickly picked up his knife and fork and began to eat until he was completely stuffed. It was only then when Mrs Weasley was satisfied that he had eaten enough that she began to check her family.

Harry watched her as she checked on each of them, he saw the red rimmed eyes and the small quiver of her lip whenever she looked at George, it was then that it hit Harry for the first time since he had woke that the Weasley's were minus one. A wave of guilt swept over him when he looked at George and saw that he looked even worse than Mrs Weasley, he was staring at the table, not responding to his father who it seemed had kept his arm around him since they had sat down or to his mother who was unsuccessfully trying to get him to eat something.

Harry could see that Mrs Weasley was trying her hardest not to cry in front of George, obviously fearing that it would make him crumble even more. Seeing the pain in their eyes made Harry realize that he shouldn't be sat with them, he the reason that they were missing one of their own.

He stood up abruptly and without giving anyone a chance to ask what he was doing, he left the table and quickly made his way out of the hall. He could only hope that no-one had decided to follow him as all he could think about now was being alone. He left the castle and made his way to the lake.

He sat down underneath a tree and looked around, parts of the castle were lying in the grounds, tree's had been knocked over, the majority of the castles windows had been smashed and there were large chunks missing from some walls where the castle had started to collapse into itself.

He could see Dumbledore's tomb out of the corner of his eye and found himself wondering if anyone had repaired it since Voldemort had broken into it for the Elder wand. He sighed and put his head in his hands, pulling on his hair, as if believing that physical pain could make his emotional guilt go away.

'_Fred died because I didn't hand myself over to Voldemort quicker' _he thought _'Teddy will grow up without his parents because of me, Dumbledore, Sirius, Mad-Eye, all died because of me. _

"ARRRRRRRRRRGH!" Harry shouted, trying to release all of his anger and frustration in one.

"People will think you're crazy if you sit out here shouting at yourself"

Harry turned sharply and to his complete shock saw Draco Malfoy standing a few feet away from him, hands in his pockets and looking extremely awkward. Harry found that for some reason, he didn't bear any grudges against Draco, knowing that everything he did had only been to please his parents and not himself.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked him

"Um, well, Weasley tried to come out but I told him that I had things that I needed to say to you"

"And he just let you go?"

"No, Granger told him that it might be a good idea if we spoke, you know I'm starting to realize that that girl really is smarter than she looks"

"I'll let her know you said that" Harry replied, and immediately burst out laughing upon seeing the look on Draco's face.

"Ok I won't say anything" Harry chuckled "But really, what are you doing here?"

"Well I feel that there are things that I need to say to you, I want you to understand some things and…well these last 2 years have really opened my eyes to the whole world, not just the one that my parents have enforced upon me"

"Well I'm prepared to listen, as you can probably tell I'm in no rush to go back in there just yet"

"And why is that?"

"Uhh, I think we're agreed that you are going to talk first"

"Okay, fine, well, first of all I want to say thank you" Harry stared at him, not sure whether to believe what he had just heard.

"Don't look so shocked" Draco said as he sat down next to him "It's the least I can say after everything you've done"

"But wha…" Harry began to say before Draco cut him off

"No please don't interrupt, just let me explain, you saved my life twice last night, in the Room of Requirement and again after that, you didn't have to either time, you could have easily left me and let me die but you didn't, you were a better person than I could ever be, even risking your own life to save mine."

"I've been thinking, a lot, since the battle about why I've done all of this, why I've only ever done anything to keep my parents, mainly my father, happy and why on earth I agreed to join….His side"

"For the most part I think it was just because all of my father's views had been forced upon me from such an early age that I grew up not knowing any different, but I think another reason is that in a way I was jealous of you"

"Jealous of me? Why?" Harry asked, totally shocked by this revelation

"Because everyone is in awe of you, everyone looks up to you and everyone wants to be your friend and what am I compared to you? My family are really only known for the amount of money that my father has paid the minister over the years."

"When we first stepped into this castle I offered you the only thing that I thought would impress you, my friendship, but you rejected it and instead chose to stay with Weasley, which I'm sure you can understand given my upbringing I thought was absolutely disgusting, it was then I think, I thought to myself, I'll show Harry Potter what sort of friendship he is missing out on"

Draco paused for a minute and Harry was unsure whether to say anything, he looked up and saw Charlie Weasley walking over towards them. He stopped a short distance away and stuck his thumb up to ask Harry if he was ok. Harry signaled back that everything was fine and Charlie gave him a small smile and started to walk back to the castle.

"Probably checking that I haven't tried to kill you yet" Draco laughed

"I think it's probably Mrs Weasley just worrying about me" Harry replied

"I suppose she has good reason to, after Fred….." Draco trailed off. Harry just looked at him, silently asking him to carry on with his explanation, not wanting to think of anything like that right now.

"Ok, so I wanted to prove to you that you were missing out on something but as each year passed you kept doing all of these incredible things and everyone would look up to you even more and pathetic little me jumped at every single chance I could get to humiliate you. And then of course last year with my….assignment, I thought finally this will be my chance to show what I can do, but as the year went on it became more and more clear to me that I could never be the person that you were"

"This past year has just been awful, I realized last summer after Dumbledore died that I didn't want to be a part of this, I didn't want to do it for my father anymore. I suppose really I had been trying to be the Harry Potter of the dark side. I regret everything I've done over the last 2 years, but seeing you in the manor I thought I could try and make it up to you by not identifying you to the death eaters"

"I'm rambling now but I suppose what I'm really trying to say is that I am truly sorry for everything that has happened between us, and I know that we will never be friends but in the end I hope that we can at least put everything behind us and get to some sort of level of understanding between us" Draco finished quickly, and Harry suspected that that had been the hardest part for him to say

"Draco, I accept all of your apologies and I completely understand your reasons for everything, I too hope that we can put everything behind us and maybe one day start to build some bridges between us" Harry said with a small smirk on his face

"Ha, now that is funny, I think there would be a few people who would have something to say about that" Draco said also smirking

Harry smiled. All the tension that had been in the air was now gone, it was as if a small bond had been forged between them.

"Well, I trust that you won't tell anyone what we have spoken about, I wouldn't want people to think that I've become soft now" Draco said, standing up and brushing himself off.

"Of course not….Malfoy"

"Thank you, Potter"

They both looked at each and then slowly small grins broke onto each of their faces. Draco held out his hand to help Harry up off the ground, and as he was pulling himself off the ground with Draco's help, Harry thought it was a clear sign off all the changes that had happened in the short space of time since the battle.

"Right, we should get back to the castle, I believe McGonagall said something about a speech when everyone was there"


End file.
